We bought our Christmas tree today, and put it up in the den. We’ll wait a day for the branches to settle and tomorrow we’ll decorate. The room smells lovely…my favorite scent – pine. I regularly burn pine scented candles in the house. I love pine scented bubble bath. I used to use this wonderful pine bubble bath from Austria when I was in graduate school. I lived in Philadelphia in those days. I was able to find it in Boston when I moved there – I think Caswell Massey carried it – but I haven’t been able to find it since. I miss it so much! If anyone has any tips on a great pine bubble bath, please let me know.

I’ve been anxious to put Christmas decorations up earlier than usual this year because I really want to stretch this Christmas season. Right after the New Year, I am going to San Diego to be a guest voice/speech teacher for a semester. This job is in the program in which I taught for 8 years. The woman who replaced me when we decided to move east is taking a sabbatical for the semester and the Theater and the University’s training program want me to stay through the opening of the summer Shakespeare Festival. Since my husband and I both freelance, this is a great opportunity, especially in our current economy. We had planned to go out as a family, but the apartment where I will be staying is basically one large room and two adults and two big dogs would be too much. So my husband and dogs will stay here at the cottage.

So I am grateful for this job, but I will have to be away from my husband and my dogs for a long time. I will get home for a week in March and again in April, and Don will come out to see me, but I will miss my home so much! I am a nester. I love my home, my cottage. And my dogs? What will they do without their Mom?

Don’t get me wrong, I am very thankful for this opportunity. I know that teaching again will be rewarding, and coaching Shakespeare is always exciting. But I find myself getting teary quite often lately.

And my blog? I will still keep letting you know about Mockingbird Hill Cottage, and I plan to write about how to take a run of the mill furnished apartment and decorate it so that it becomes a haven while away from home. There are lots of vintage shops and antique shops, as well as famous flea markets to explore and treasures to be found.

Yummy! I made some chocolate chip cookies yesterday and they are quite tasty. I do like seeing them under my glass dome on the new island. They look so welcoming and inviting in our kitchen. There is a problem, though – I keep eating them.

I want to share a couple of things I got at Rhinebeck:

This looks larger than it is – it is a coaster. The center is hooked like a rug and the petals of the sunflower are strips of wool. My sister bought 3 and I bought one. We both would have bought more, but there weren’t many left. I think its charming and it looks lovely on my blue table in the den.

This lovely vintage project bag was an early birthday gift from my sister. I love it. I love vintage fabrics and this bag is charming. Its already holding my current knitting project.

More later.

A quick post to let you know about this – the impending demise of Mary Englebreits Home Companion Magazine. Say it isn’t so! I have every issue of this wonderful magazine. Every issue. Since the beginning.Wonderful photography, wonderful design, long articles about homes, design, crafts, everything. Hopefully if we kick up a fuss about this we can let the powers-that-be know that we want this magazine to go on.